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Nov. 23—A U.K. ruling that drivers working for Uber Technologies Inc. are entitled to basic
workers’ rights has not clarified “in any way” how British employers should classify
workers as employees or contractors, according to a senior employment attorney.

Other employers in the gig economy should be wary of drawing too many immediate conclusions
from the Central London Employment Tribunal’s recent decision, Martin Warren, a partner
and head of the HR practice group at London-based Eversheds told Bloomberg BNA.

The CLET ruled Oct. 28 that Uber should grant two of its drivers such employee rights
as minimum wage and minimum paid vacation.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Nigel Mackay, associate solicitor at London-based Leigh Day,
said the decision confirmed that Uber’s drivers “are not self-employed but that they
work for Uber as part of the company’s business.”

Are Workers Employees or Contractors?

But Warren argues that the ruling has not necessarily shed any additional light on
exactly how U.K. companies are supposed to determine whether a worker is an employee
or an independent contractor.

Currently, U.K. employment law divides those who work for someone else into three
main categories, Warren said, “with ‘employees’
at one end of the scale, people who carry on a profession or business on their own
account and provide work or services for clients or customers at the other and in
between a group usually referred to as ‘workers.’ ”

“Employment and worker status are the passport to a range of statutory rights,” Warren
said, “although the full array is reserved for those categorized as employees. The
boundaries between the three groups are, however, largely invisible:
there are few hard and fast rules for distinguishing between the categories and many
cases are decided as a matter of overall impression.”

Shedding Light

Warren emphasized that the Uber tribunal’s decision “is an example of such a case
and does not clarify the law in any way.”

Uber has appealed the ruling, Warren said, and the appeal tribunal is “likely to focus
in more detail on the legal aspects of the tests for distinguishing between workers
and other self-employed contractors.”

Warren concluded that the “litigation could yet shed light on some of the trickier
aspects of the law in this area, although with the appeals process potentially running
on for years, any final ruling will be some distance away.”

‘New Working Models'

According to Maria Ludkin, a legal director at trade union GMB, the Uber ruling “will
have a hugely positive impact on over 30,000 drivers in London and across England
and Wales and for thousands more in other industries where bogus self-employment is
rife.”

Warren told Bloomberg BNA that “new working models emerging from the digital, on-demand
economy have given rise to a wave of litigation recently in the UK, as elsewhere in
the world. This month, for example, another tribunal will hear the first of a group
of claims brought against a number of cycle-courier firms.”

Warren warned, however, that “the fact that the Uber claimants have won their claim
for worker status does not mean that claims brought by others who work elsewhere will
meet with the same success. Indeed it is notable that the tribunal did not doubt that
Uber could have, in principle, created a business model that did not involve the drivers
having worker status.”

Regarding the impact on other gig workers, Warren said, that “each case will depend
on the specific terms and arrangements between the individual and the company they
work for.”

“Nevertheless, other firms who rely heavily on the ‘on demand’ freelance workforce
will have noted the tribunal’s robust approach and will be watching other cases like
this keenly for any emerging trends that could significantly impact their business
model financially. The appeal tribunal’s decision in the Uber case will also be one
to look out for.”

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